Carmex Review & Giveaway!

If you're anything like me, you constantly have to have lip balm on hand. I've never a lipstick, or even a lip gloss person, but I always have lip balm. And Carmex is one of my favorites, so I was very excited to be able to try out the new Vanilla & Lime Twist flavors! I wasn't surprised to find that I love them. They are the same, high quality you'd expect from Carmex, and the flavors smell great. Plus, they are SPF 15. You can find them at Walgreens, Walmart and CVS. So how would you like to win the set you see above? Two Carmex lip balms in Vanilla and Lime Twist, and a picnic blanket?

To enter:
1. MANDATORY: What's your favorite food to have at a picnic?
2. OPTIONAL: Be a public follower or let me know that you already are.

Giveaway will remain open until 9/16/11.

I was provided with products to review by the makers of Carmex, but ideas & opinions are 100% my own.

Oozy Cauldron

Several years ago, we made these oozing cauldrons for Halloween decorations. I love how they turned out! But they do take some maintenance when you get them back out each year. I think that's why I never really blogged a real tutorial? I did a quick post on them here. But would you guys want a full photo tutorial on these?

Project Sneak Peek

I really am trying to get back into the swing of things! I have a few things I need to finish before I can share, like the photo above. I also have at least one giveaway coming up. I'm trying to adjust to the kids being back in school, ME being back in school and juggling those with football & gymnastics practice. I think I'm getting there though! If you'd be interested in guest posting or sponsoring a giveaway - please let me know!

Butterfly Art

One of my favorite blogs is Whatever. If you haven't visited Meg's blog, you totally should! When she posted her butterfly project, I knew it was something I wanted to try one day. And I knew Layla would love it! She is quite the crafty girl herself. Always drawing or trying to make something. So I dug out some old canvases I was saving. As you can see they were previously used!

I painted them white (took several coats!) then Layla chose what color she wanted to use & got busy. I decided I'd make one for Morgan, I kept hers white.

Next we got out the watercolors and got busy painting. As you can see, Morgan wanted to help.

Sorry for the quality of the photos, it's usually in the evening when we craft.

After our papers were dry, I got busy punching out butterflies. Lots of butterflies!

And then we started arranging them. I tried a glue pen so she could do it herself, but it wasn't drying fast enough, so I got out the hot glue gun. I don't have a low-temp one, so I helped her out with the gluing.

And here they are! Morgan's (the one I made) is the white one, and Layla's is the blue one.

I love how colorful they are! Now I just need to figure out where to hang them.

Linked to:
Watcha Got Weekend at Lolly Jane Boutique, Sundae Scoop at I ♥ Naptime, Think Pink Sundays at Flamingo Toes, Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table & Dreaming, Made by Little Hands Monday at delicateCONSTRUCTION, Creative Bloggers Party & Hop at Homemaker On a Dime, Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Show Me What Ya Got at Not Just a Housewife, Too Cute Tuesday at Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog, Show & Tell at Blue Cricket Design, Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Craftss, What's Up Wednesday at Sew Woodsy, Link Party #67 at Tea Rose Home, Idea Sharing Wednesday at Women Who Do It All, Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, Delicately Constructed Friday at delicateCONSTRUCTION, Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home, Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest, Catch-as-Catch-Can at My Repurposed Life

Upromise - Dare to Dream

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of UPromise for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Have you joined Upromise yet? If not, you definitely should. Not only can you earn money for college just by doing your regular shopping (online and in store!), but right now, you could win $10,000!  Wouldn't that be nice?

Upromise is celebrating their 10th anniversary by having a contest at www.upromisetodream.com. Their members have already earned more then $600 million in college savings through their awesome program, but now they want to give back even more. You could win $1,000 or even $10,000 right now! Just by submitting a story of how you are supporting your childs dreams. Ten lucky winners will receive $1,000 and one really lucky winner will when $10,000! That would definitely help fulfill some dreams.

To enter, head on over to the Dream Wall and submit your dream. After submitting your dream, you can "like" other dreams, and encourage your friends and family to "like" your dreams. There will be weekly drawings for the $1,000 and the entry with the most votes by September 29 will win the $10,000. For official rules, visit here: k dream wall official rules.

I have already entered, maybe I'll get lucky! My dream talks about wanting my kids to have happy childhoods and to finish college before they have families of their own! It's definitely something I wish I had done. I can only hope for things to be better for them. I also hope they are able to fulfill their personal dreams, whether it's playing college or pro football, or traveling the world. I want my kids to have happy, successful lives, much like anyone else, I'm sure!

So what are you waiting for? Hurry up and enter today! And let me know in the comments, what kinds of dreams do you have for your kids?

 

A Glowing Mess

I'm almost embarrassed to admit how long we've had this Crayola Glow Explosion Sand sitting around (they got it for Easter!), but we finally drug it out and put it to use. It was pretty easy to set up - you had to mix the sand & some activator together. The kit we had came with 3 containers to fill with the sand. You can see above what the sand looked like after we mixed it.


Like anything artsy & fun - it was messy! This is my table after we finished.

This is the floor. Kind of looks like stars, huh?

Here is Blake's creation.

And Layla's.

And Morgan's.

This stuff was a lot of fun! The kids really enjoyed it. The glow only lasted about 4 hours, but they glow pretty bright. I had to keep the lights off so I could vacuum up the mess!

Linked To:
Think Pink Sunday at Flamingo Toes, Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table & Dreaming, Sundae Scoop at Under the Table & Dreaming, Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Creative Bloggers Party & Hop at Homemaker on a Dime, Show & Tell at Blue Cricket Design

It's a Shark-Er-Melon!

I've been debating posting this since I did it, mostly because another blogger posted it first. Apparently we both made this Memorial Day weekend! (that's how long I've been debating, lol!). I ended up posting my watermelon cake first. But I went through the trouble of photographing the steps, so I'm going to go ahead and post.


Start with a long, oval shaped watermelon. Wash it and dry it. And then lop off one end, at an angle.


Then cut away an open mouth shape. I went over this first with a little paring knife, then did the actual cutting with a bigger, sharper knife. Make sure you save the good fruit from this and the chunk you cut off first.


Using a scoop or a spoon, carefully scrape out the inside of the melon. Keep this fruit too!



This was probably the trickiest part for me. You need to remove the dark green flesh from about 1 inch or so, all the way around the mouth. I used the paring knife at first, then tried a veggie peeler. The peeler was much easier!


You can see mine isn't quite perfect! But that's ok.



Next, using a sharp knife, begin cutting the teeth. Mine aren't very uniform, but I still think they turned out pretty good.


Using some of the previously cut away rind, cut the shape of a fin. Then, using toothpicks, insert the fin into the back of the shark.



Cut your previously set aside fruit into cubes, and fill the sharks mouth.



For the eye, I used a melon baller to dig out a circle, then I filled it with a brown peanut M&M. Be careful with this part, you don't want to crack your shark!



And there you have it! It was fairly easy - easier than I thought it would be!

Linked to:
Inspired By You Wednesday at Eisy Morgan, Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style, Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts, Show & Tell at Blue Cricket Design, What's Up Wednesday at Sew Woodsy, Idea Sharin Wednesday at Women Who Do It All, Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, Delicately Constructed Friday at delicateCONSTRUCTION